"The LORD Preserves The Faithful"

Psalm 31:22-24 (NKJV)

 ²² For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried out to You.

²³ Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, And fully repays the proud person.
²⁴ Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord.

I can only thank God for these verses! Oh God, how good You are to those who trust in You, and to those who love You. As I was reading Psalm 31, these verses jumped at me as usual, whenever God tries to reiterate something to me. I felt just like David: "I am cut off from before Your eyes!", but the Lord showed me that He hears all my prayers, all my pain, and He is there for me to preserve me. This is the best promise and encouragement I can have from Him.

He didn`t stop there either, He promises here even more that He will "repay the proud person". I don`t wish any harm or malice for my husband, but when I see this verse, it speaks of God`s character to me that He doesn`t "preserve the ways of the wicked" just like I wrote in my other article. God is just, and He knows who says what; He knows all the truth better than I could ever explain it to even the closest of my friends. My facts are so twisted and abundant that the only way to get the truth out is by coming to God and letting Him screen and sieve through my facts. I know I am in the right hands for that, and I don`t with anyone better than God for my Judge.

That`s why I find it so irreplaceable to come to my Father in my personal relationships and fall on my face before Him just like Jesus did because it reminds me of my humble place before the Lord: that He is in control of everything, and not me. I crave this personal time alone with God because this is where He shows me His plan, He sustains me, He convicts me, and He shows me His endless love.

My Lord continues to remind me to be courageous, and "He will strengthen my heart". Oh how I needed to hear these verses today. As I finally heard back from the court yesterday that my Scheduling conference would not be until April 25-Th, I felt desperate and depressed that I would have to wait over a month for the very first step of the process (this is the very preliminary step of the custody/legal separation process where the judge evaluates the case and decides whether the temporary hearing is needed to decide on custody, child support, use and possession of the house, whether mediation and other services are necessary or not). That`s another full month from now before anything else will happen.

God had to encourage me to be courageous because I was getting exhausted with waiting; I was getting hopeless that anything will change. I know that He has the right time for everything, but I am just growing weary. I want my daughter with me every day; I want to see my family restored; I want to see my family being Christian and serving the Lord already. But I have to wait.

I was reminded today of the way Jesus prayed in His time alone with the Father:

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39 NIV)

God reminded me that the best way to pray is to seek His will and not my will because I can never know better than Him what`s best for me, for my daughter, for my husband, for my family; only He knows it best.

I felt this urge to go away somewhere and just like Jesus just fall on my face and weep before the Lord to take away this "cup" from me; I am too tired to fight; I am too tired to intercede. So God had to take me to another scripture and remind me that I have to preserve my faith just like Abraham did:

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she^[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. ¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:8-16 NIV)

Abraham didn`t even flinch when Lord called him out of his homeland and led him into the unseen and unknown. Abraham had to obey the Lord by faith and live his life (without seeing the ultimate promise coming true during his generation) as if God already fulfilled His promise to him. This is the highest level of faith and relationships with the Lord: to obey and live by faith one`s life as if everything that Lord promised already came true and treating the unseen circumstances as seen.

I am at the place where I have no choice but to live that out, but that`s not out of my own accord because my faith is too small in itself. I was placed in the circumstances where I have no choice but to believe that whatever God does it will be faithful, according to His plan and purpose. In all this, I want for the Lord to be able to say about me that "He was not ashamed to be called my God". This would be the biggest reward for me for all my trials that I`m going through. I want to be like Abraham unflinching when carrying out God`s purpose even when I don`t see the plan in reality yet. God rewards our faith when we stay obedient.

That`s why my personal relationships are so important, so God could penetrate my heart with His truth to encourage me, to convict me, to uplift me, to teach me, and to preserve me.

If you go through some hardships, I encourage you to seek the Lord first because He preserves His faithful children. That`s who He is, period. He is always there for me, and He will be there for you if you will ask Him, just like David did, just like I am doing every day.

Be encouraged just like I am that God is faithful, and He is going to preserve His faithful children!